[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 115 (Tuesday, July 31, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1356]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         RED TAPE REDUCTION AND SMALL BUSINESS JOB CREATION ACT

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                               speech of

                         HON. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 25, 2012

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the state of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 4078) to 
     provide that no agency may take any significant regulatory 
     action until the unemployment rate is equal to or less than 
     6.0 percent:

  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Chair, this legislation is an amalgam of seven 
dangerously misguided bills designed to shut down a breathtaking number 
of safeguards and protections citizens rely on--from the quality of 
health care seniors receive to the safety of infant formula babies 
drink to the benefits our veterans have earned. As former Republican 
Congressman Sherry Boehlert has warned: ``It's difficult to exaggerate 
the sweep and destructiveness of . . . (this) . . . bill.''
  The core of H.R. 4078 proposes to freeze most regulatory action until 
the nation's unemployment rate hits 6 percent--as if the quality of 
seniors' health care, the safety of infant formula or the availability 
of veterans' benefits should depend on where the nation's unemployment 
rate is. Another provision of H.R. 4078 would block so called 
``midnight rules'' issued in the final days of an outgoing 
administration--without any apparent recognition that the offshore 
drilling bill the majority brought to the floor of the House just 
yesterday was itself largely proposed as a ``midnight'' regulation in 
the final days of the Bush Administration. Still other provisions in 
H.R. 4078 would tie up the Securities and Exchange Commission and the 
Commodity Futures Trading Commission with additional paperwork, thereby 
diverting already scarce resources from other critical functions, like 
ensuring transparency and accountability in our financial markets.
  Mr. Chair, I am not opposed to regulatory reform. Where a regulation 
is truly wasteful, unnecessary or duplicative, we should fix it or get 
rid of it. But, like the comedy of errors surrounding the numerous 
typos leading up to consideration of this bill, H.R. 4078 is a poorly 
conceived, hastily thrown together mess. The American people deserve 
better.

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